Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.60 (678 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0452290082 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-07-25 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
However, the history of the banana turned sinister as American businessmen caught on to the marketability of this popular, highly perishable fruit then grown in Jamaica. From Publishers Weekly The world's most humble fruit has caused inordinate damage to nature and man, and Popular Science journalist Koeppel (To See Every Bird on Earth) embarks on an intelligent, chock-a-block sifting through the havoc. shores probably with the Europeans in the 15th century. Thanks to the building of the railroad through Costa Rica by the turn of the century, the United Fruit company flourished in Central America, its tentacles extending into all facets of government and industry, toppling banana republics and igniting labor wars. His sage, informative study poses the question fairly whether it's time for consumers to reverse a century of strife and exploitation epit
"Yes We Have No Bananas Today" according to john purcell. Dan Koeppel has written an informative fast-paced book detailing the rise and fall of the global banana industry, bringing us along over decades of conflict over land ownership, labor's share of profits, rights of owners of capital, property rights, and self-governance. We start at the very beginning since some believe that t. "More information on the banana than you can shake a banana-shaped stick at" according to David S. Saunders. I read some articles recently about the potential extinction of the banana and I went to get a better understanding of what is really going on. After reading this book, I know more about the banana, it's many varieties, and the blight of Panama disease that affects this food around the globe. I now know that a banana is techn. "A great story" according to The Wizard. Told with the detail you need to understand the problem now facing our "favorite fruit". Pleasingly, although it doesn,t defend them, it is not a diatribe against Dole and Chiquita (ex United Fruit).
In the vein of Mark Kurlansky's bestselling Salt and Cod, a gripping chronicle of the myth, mystery, and uncertain fate of the world’s most popular fruit In this fascinating and surprising exploration of the banana’s history, cultural significance, and endangered future, award-winning journalist Dan Koeppel gives readers plenty of food for thought. Fast-paced and highly entertaining, Banana takes us from jungle to supermarket, from corporate boardrooms to kitchen tables around the world. We begin in the Garden of Eden—examining scholars’ belief that Eve’s “apple” was actually a banana— and travel to early-twentieth-century Central America, where aptly named “banana republics” rose and fell over the crop, while the companies now known as Chiquita and Dole conquered the marketplace. Koeppel then chronicles the banana’s path to the present, ultimately—and most alarmingly—taking us to banana plantations across the globe that are being destroyed by a fast-moving blight, with no cure in sight—and to the high-tech labs where new bananas are literally being built in test tubes, in a race to save the world’s most beloved fruit.Read Dan Koeppel's posts on the Penguin Blog.
Dan Koeppel, a 2011 James Beard Award winner, is a science and nature writer who has written for National Geographic, Outside, Scientific American, Wired, and other national publications. He has discussed bananas on NPR’s Fresh Air and Science Friday.